11 Proven Tips To Make Virtual Training More Engaging

Virtual training keeps gaining popularity, yet competition in the industry also grows. Therefore, it is vital not only to provide value but also to make sure that students are engaged throughout the session. 

Good engagement levels will result in a higher satisfaction rate among clients, resulting in better reviews and increased trust toward you as a trainer. Throughout the article, we will look at 11 proven tips to make online training more engaging. 

So, if you are ready, let’s start! 

What can break the engagement? 

First, let’s review potential factors that might ruin the engagement to understand what you should avoid at any cost. 

• Being way too formal. It is not a school, and you are not a teacher. Invest time in yourself and learn training methodologies successful trainers implement for efficient sessions. 
• Technical Tool’s inefficiency. If you are not aware of the tools you use, it will take time to learn them, which most likely will cause boredom among participants while they wait until you find a particular function or button.
• No visuals. No visuals or presentations overloaded with information won’t work. 
• No dynamics. It is no era for static visuals; use some animations. 
• Sleepy voice. Work on your voice intonation, which is crucial for engagement.

So, as we are familiar with the main factors that may break the engagement, let’s move on to the tips to boost engagement.

How to keep virtual training engaging? 

It is time to review the Top 11 Practical & Proven tips to make your virtual training more engaging. 

Master the technology 

Tip number one is to master the technology that you use.

Knowing the tools, you utilize throughout the session will allow for a smoother training experience. Let’s consider a situation where you decided to utilize a whiteboard for the first time during the training. Well, most likely, there would be certain aspects to its interface you are not familiar with. This will cause inconvenience and be time-consuming. 

So, ensure you have a well-structured session throughout which you know what tools you should use and how to use them. 

Use dynamic presentation techniques  

Whether it is in-person training or virtual, dynamic presentations never do any harm. 

Moreover, dynamic presentations are amazing for boosting engagement levels. Instead of showing static images, add some animations and make the experience more immersive. 

Besides, you can add certain icebreakers or questions on some slides of the presentation to improve the level of interaction. 

Incorporate different learning styles 

Do not limit yourself to one style. Keep in mind that you work with different people at a time. For some democratic style must work best for others, more authoritarian. 

Get to know your group beforehand to optimize the best learning style. 

Involve everybody in discussions 

Make sure that participants feel included. You can break large groups into a few smaller groups or host training sessions with only 3-5 participants. 

When you see a student is left out, ask them a question so that they also start participating. Make sure people refrain from dominating the discussion and let others speak too. 

Combine synchronous and asynchronous learning 

Through a combination of these, you will ensure that attendees are prepared beforehand, allowing for better focus maintenance of the training session. 

Don’t be too formal 

Being formal is vital for creating an appropriate atmosphere that will be motivating for students to engage in learning. Yet being too formal will throw the focus off very soon.

Make jokes and be yourself while still presenting yourself as a professional. This may require some time to learn how, but you definitely can. 

Pay attention to your body language, vocabulary, and posture. While explaining the material, do not get nervous. Relax and trust the flow. 

Use the power of visuals. 

Visuals are potent. Incorporate dynamic presentations, infographics, and other visual materials throughout the training program to enhance learners’ experience and engagement levels.

Do not overstuff visuals with information; keep them modern and simple. Yet, make sure to highlight key concepts in visuals. Also, you can create customized visual materials based on your brand’s color palette to provide a more wholesome user experience. 

Avoid information overload 

This is a mistake many trainers make. Yes, training indeed can be serious and complex, yet too much information is overwhelming. You will quickly lose the attendees' interest, engagement, and focus. 

Instead of throwing all the information out, design a program that fits the topics in a session of optimal lengths. And even if that training yet is complex, incorporate fun activities at the beginning, middle, and end of the training. 

These “fun” activities will help learners to switch up focus and get energized to continue the session. Some of these activities can be educational, for instance, a short quiz or a poll. 

Keep in mind two things:

• Deliver the training materials in a short & sweet manner, yet manage to cover details 
• Have breaks in an icebreaker format. 

Storytelling Time: 

Let’s stress this point’s importance with a real-life story. 

During an SMM course, the trainer talked for half an hour, then gave a 10-minute break and kept talking for another hour. It requires strong self-motivation to keep watching his live. They were extremely boring, even though he shared very useful material and tips you could not find on the internet. Yet, did the value he gave help him? Not really; only a few attendees watched till the end, joined all the following sessions, and received their certifications. 

Another example was with another trainer. It was Sales training, and the trainer was amazing. She knew when to be serious, when to make a joke and how constantly keep the audience focused and engaged. Did people finish her course? Yes. Did she receive positive reviews? Yes. Will she sell more? Absolutely.

So, more than being an expert on a subject matter is required. You should be a real trainer who knows how to keep the audience engaged. 

Apply new games and activities 

Online Learning gives you so many opportunities for engagement of the audience.

For instance, you can incorporate various games and activities throughout your session. You can utilize certain tools or even go without them. 

Game-based learning positively contributes to

• Teamworking skills & Trust-building among participants 
• Improves creative & critical thinking skills
• Improves engagement levels and better acquirement of the learning material through active recalling,  repetitions & discussions 

Encourage diversity of opinion 

Another tip that will help to boost engagement in the form of discussions is to encourage diversity of opinion.

Set training policy according to which every opinion should be respected. Then suggest various interesting topics related to your industry or niche of yours to encourage discussions and polite debates. This way, you can switch to collaborative learning mode and base most of the learning process on discussions. 

Give attendees a brain break 

Remember to make time for breaks. If the session is long and complex, besides activities to switch focus, give attendees a brain break. E.g. 5-10 minutes, they are free to do whatever they want. 

If you follow at least a few of these tips, you can easily take your online training experience to the next level. 

Wondering where to get started?

You should start somewhere to implement all of these tips. 

So, if you are a virtual trainer looking for a perfect platform, we have an excellent recommendation for you - Uteach. 

Uteach is a potent tool that allows you to build & customize training websites, host end-to-end live sessions, integrate the platform with your favorite tools, and much more. 

It provides you with every tool & functionality necessary for further growth. 

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